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The Premier League season of 2016-17 was supposed to be a fight between the world's best managers. Pep Guardiola had made the grand entrance to Manchester City with his biggest foe and Chelsea's former manager Jose Mourinho taking over the reigns at Manchester United. With Mauricio Pochettino's Tottenham coming close to winning the title the previous season, big things were expected of them too. It was Jurgen Klopp's first full season at Liverpool and Arsene Wenger had always been present among the elite.
However, it was a former Juventus manager with three league titles that stole the show that season. Antonio Conte took over Chelsea after leading Italy to the quarter final stage of Euro 2016. Conte was praised for his tactical masterclass in that tournament after beating Spain in the round of 16 and and only missing out on the semi-finals after a penalty shootout defeat to Germany.
The Italian came to the Premier league to embrace a new challenge and to show the world that he can make his methods work outside Italy, and he certainly did that.
#4 The successful change to 3-4-3
Conte may have had little time to look at his team and the tactics he could bring about, considering he was involved with Italy in the Euros before the beginning of the season. He did not immediately change to his best formation, preferring to choose a style of play depending on the players at his disposal.
He did manage to earn some close wins against Watford and West Ham earlier on in the season but it was obvious that the team definitely needed a change. However, it was the team's consecutive losses to Liverpool and Arsenal after the international break that triggered the change.
In the match against Arsenal, in particular, with the team being 3-0 down at half time, Conte thought it was time to stamp his authority and he reverted to 3-4-3 in the second half. After that game, the team went on a 13-match winning run in the league which helped them clinch their fifth Premier League title in a brilliant fashion.
His tactical change was so influential that many teams within the division started adopting it. In fact, even Gareth Southgate used a similar formation with three at the back for England in the 2018 World Cup. It was more of a 3-5-2, something Conte tried to adopt, albeit with less success, in the last campaign.
#2 Making positional changes with success
Conte may have been disappointed with the transfer activities of his club, regularly criticizing that the board did not sign the players he wanted. However, the main job of a coach is to bring out the best with the players at his disposal. Although it was not the case in his second season, Conte did that to perfection in his first.
The move to bring back Victor Moses from the wilderness and make him a right wing back was a resounding success. Conte needed his wing backs to have positional discipline both defensively and offensively. Although Alonso was a perfect fit for the job, he made Moses into one.
The change of Kante's role from a defensive midfielder to a more box to box kind of a midfielder worked a treat. Kante may be known for his defensive side of things but Conte wanted him to improve his attacking aspect as well. In fact, Conte's first choice was Roma's Nainggolan for exactly the same reason. However, when Conte met Kante, there was no stopping them.
Azpilicueta is certainly known as one of the most versatile defenders in the world. He was initially bought as a right back from Marseille to Chelsea. The decline of Ashley Cole gave the Spaniard the opportunity to seal the left back position which he took with both hands. But little did people know that he had the capability of being one of the best right sided centre backs in the Premier League. He was a great fit on the right side of Conte's three at the back system.
#2 Conte's Response to Adversity
It was in February 2018 that things started to go wrong for Chelsea with their run of 4 defeats in 5 Premier League matches, making them outsiders for the top four. It can be argued that Conte failed to respond to those defeats with the home defeat to Tottenham later in the league, where Spurs had not won for 28 years, proving to be the final nail in the coffin.
However, there may be other factors as part of that demise as well. Conte was reportedly not satisfied with the results of the January transfer window and the tension between the board and the manager was also increasing with reports stating that the board was unhappy that Conte was criticizing their methods publicly. However, their were numerous instances where Conte has responded in the perfect fashion towards criticisms.
Conte was under immense pressure after his humiliating 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in his first season wherein it was reported that the manager may have been sacked after managing just five Premier League games. However, the rest is history, with Conte turning around the club's fortunes then with his tactical nous and winning the league.
It may not have been the most testing of circumstances, but welcoming a former manager who was once adored by your club's fans can be pressurizing. This was what happened when Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho came to Stamford Bridge in 2016-17 for the first time following his controversial sacking. Lose and your reputation is at stake, with the club faithful even longing for what they once had. A win was needed to make a statement of intent and an emphatic win was what Conte delivered. Mourinho was humiliated, with Chelsea running out 4-0 winner.
Three months after winning the Premier league, Conte was facing a bizarre situation of answering the media about his future with Chelsea. This is of course, partly due to the various events, that happened during those three months. First, the Italian was involved in a text row with Diego Costa telling him that he was no more a part of his plans. Costa stated the same to the public and the fact that he was now available to his suitors became common knowledge. Although Costa had been quite a rebel asking to leave the club before in few instances, the method adopted by the Italian was not appreciated by the board who felt it would have a great impact on his sale value. Conte also criticized the board for their uninspiring transfer activities in a summer where he demanded more after winning the league title.
Chelsea lost their first home game against Burnley which increased the pressure on the then Chelsea manager. With their next game against a good Tottenham side at Wembley, it felt that it would be going from bad to worse for the then champions. However, astonishingly, Chelsea won the game 2-1 silencing reports of discontent within the squad and Conte proved his tactical nous once again by adopting a 3-5-2 formation and deploying Luiz as a holding midfielder for the game.
Chelsea did not qualify for the Champions league, finishing only 5th in the Premier league in the 2017-18 campaign. Conte always insisted that it were the transfer activities of the board that affected the club's chances that season and that he is a serial winner. The FA Cup final against Mourinho's Manchester United, with whom he had some personal spats earlier in the season, was the perfect stage to prove it. Mourinho had an excellent record in finals whereas Conte had yet to win any Cup. History was against him. It felt that Conte needed it more than the club to enhance his reputation before leaving the club, a situation which was looking increasingly likely.
It was Conte who won that battle leaving Mourinho to lick his wounds again and the Italian finally won his first domestic cup by a narrow but extremely hard fought 1-0 victory.
#2 Winning 2 Trophies in 2 Seasons
Conte has always stated that he is a serial winner and he needs the club's backing in order to prove the same. The 2016-17 season was always considered to be a period of transition for Chelsea. The same view was also shared by the then caretaker manager Hiddink while leaving the club before Conte came in.
After the Arsenal loss earlier in his first season, Conte himself admitted that his squad is not a balanced one and it would require some repairing. However, this was a manager who turned a 7th place Juventus team into title winners in his first season. Their then captain Buffon also stated that it was Conte who gave them the belief that they were much better than where they finished and they deserve to be in the top.
Hence, if there was one man who could turn it around, it was Conte. Chelsea had finished 10th in the 2015-16 campaign before Conte arrived. Although they were champions the year before, the club certainly never believed they could do it at least after such a disastrous season. Some changes and freshness was certainly required if not in terms of players but at least in terms of ideologies.
Conte's belief and tactical nous changed the mentality of the squad completely. With the 3-4-3 formation, players had something interesting to work on. As the results started coming their way, it was reported that the players started to believe in the system even more and slowly and maturely started mastering it. Eventually, a title race which was supposed to be between the two Manchester clubs turned out to be one between the two London clubs in which Chelsea eventually won by a good margin. They won the league by winning 30 of their 38 games which was a then Premier league record.
The 2017-18 season had more similarities to their dismal 2015-16 season with the club defending their title in the most abysmal way. They were only able to qualify for the Europa League and the mood surrounding the club was one of discontent. However, in spite of some reported discontent among the squad, Conte was able to gather his troops and deliver an FA Cup triumph against Mourinho's Manchester United.
It may have failed to mask the disappointment of not qualifying for the Champions league but it was certainly a shot in the arm for both Conte and Chelsea. It proved that Chelsea, although destined for the Europa League, are very much among the elite and Conte is still, as he stated, a serial winner.
